Weekend Report: 16 Miles and Mastering Ravioli

Guys, I had so much fun this weekend!

It started out winning (literally) with a Wizards game – John Wall! 101-114! Woohooooo!

Then on Sunday morning I met up with my team for the first time in a while to do the weekend  long run (putting the tiger in the cat!). Despite the cold and early hour, we got a great turnout and pretty much took over the Towpath and Rock Creek Park bike path.

I did 16.5 miles total: out-and-back from Fletcher’s Boathouse to Peirce Mill/Tilden Street (14.5), then I added on 2 more miles by running along the Towpath to just past where Chain Bridge Road crosses overheard, and back (map here, in case you care). We did it as a progression run, starting at just over 8-minute-per-mile pace and ending somewhere God-awful around 6:30 pace. (I exaggerate, it wasn’t that bad, but I was definitely tired and just barely hanging on for a while there. Basically, it felt like college running all over again.)

The Canal Towpath. Not much water or snow.

Just for the record though, this is the second-longest run I've EVER DONE EVER.

I got home, showered, foam-rolled, and lay on my couch considering what to eat and how much effort I was willing to expend…where is my helper monkey/personal chef/Sister2/Mama when I need them??? Hallelujah for Tortilla Café and pupusas to go!

Pork and cheese pupusa with cabbage slaw,  hot sauce,
and Greek yogurt (mine, I prefer it to sour cream).

Sunday night I took my first cooking class ever and learned to make ravioli at Sur La Table. This was a long-anticipated event/Christmas present and it was so much fun!

We made our own pasta dough (did you know it’s just flour and eggs?), then cranked it through a pasta machine a million times to kneed it and flatten it out.

We made three fillings paired with three sauces: spinach ricotta filling with tomato sauce, mint pea puree filling with tomato lamb sauce, and shrimp/ginger/cilantro filling with béchamel sauce. I think I liked the béchamel sauce best, but the mint pea pure and lamb pairing was pretty awesome too.

We worked in groups of 4 but each got to make our own raviolis. There was a limited amount of filling of course, and I'm pretty sure if I were doing this on my own it would be about three times as much filling and half the pasta...because more stuff is always better, right?

Things that were awesome: The instructor was nice and seemed to know what was what, and plus they do all the clean-up/setup for you! So much cooking and absolutely NO dishes!

Things that were less than awesome: The woman next to me who knew everything (Her: here let me show you how to cut that onion! Me: no thanks I’m good.), plus I recommend eating beforehand (which we definitely did, #win) because even though you get to eat lots of ravioli at the end, you don’t get to that point until like 9 pm. (Me = saving the world from hanger, one step at a time!)

Clearly I spent the time thinking of all the amazing ravioli fillings I could make for some sort of epic ravioli party…Indian ravioli? Dessert ravioli? What will I ravioli next??? Now all I need is a pasta machine...

Hope you had a great weekend too!